Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: - The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, gave its accord to 11 member countries to go ahead with a planned Financial Transaction tax (FTT).

Germany and France reportedly persuaded Spain, Italy, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia to join in, and on Tuesday got a majority of EU states to allow them to proceed with the tax.

Those countries, which represent two third of the EU’s GDP, will "for the first time ever", be able to apply this tax at a regional level "answering the long-time calls of their citizens", International Adviser quoted Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta as saying. He also urged other countries to sign up for this tax, mentioning new revenues, growth friendly investments, fairness, contribution from the financial sector to public finances, as well as his vision of a harmonised FTT.

The proposal for an FTT was adopted by the European Commission (EC) in September 2011; it targeted "all financial transactions, namely the purchase and sale of a financial instrument, such as company shares, bonds, money-market instruments, units of undertakings for collective investment, struct......................